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mashby

The personal blog of Michael Ashby

Category / technology

Everything Old Is New Again

Went down a little rabbit hole over the past couple of weeks and thought I’d share.

I’ve been sitting back watching Twitter slowly fall apart as a spectator and rather enjoying it becasue it didn’t affect me directly. All the outrage seemed to be focused on those that used the default client app or web site. Not me. As soon as there were 3rd party clients available back-in-the-day (has it been 16 YEARS?!?), I’ve used them. First with Twitterrific and then I migrated to Tweetbot, which I’ve been using since around 2011. I’ve never had ads, promoted Tweets or timeline shenanigans, so I was immune to all the fuss. That all changed last week.

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Waterfield Rough Rider Messenger Bag

The One That Got Away

Back in 2014, Waterfield made a messenger bag called the “Rough Rider“. It was expensive, around $350, so I put off buying it. I figured I’d save a little a purchase one later. That time never came and Waterfield stopped making them and the “Maverick” took it’s place. The Maverick is a nice bag but […]

Apple TV

Umm… What He Said

I’ve been a fan of the AppleTV since it debuted and I’m currently on my 3rd one. It’s a great device and one of the reasons we “cut the cord” – 99% of what we watch is done through it. That being said, it’s not a perfect device and there is plenty of room for […]

JSON Logo

Speaking Of RSS

One of the blogs that I follow, MacSparky.com, had a post today about RSS entitled The Case For RSS. Of course it’s not a direct answer to my post, Does Anyone Use RSS Anymore, but it does answer the question nicely. In his article, David Sparks says that he’s still a big fan of RSS […]

Retro vintage apple computer wallpaper

My iMac Is Now Obsolete

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how my 27″ iMac was still going strong and running the latest build of macOS. I’m still impressed by how long this computer has held up and continues to perform. Well, I learned today that Apple has declared it to be obsolete. 🙁

All this means is that Apple won’t offer repairs and replacement parts, which really isn’t that big of a deal since I would go to a 3rd party repair place or do the repair myself. Once the Apple care warranty expires, going direct to Apple is my last resort.

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RSS

Does Anyone Use RSS Anymore?

Back-in-the-day, RSS or News Feeds were all the rage. I, for one, have been using them since the early 2000’s and it’s my daily source of news via Fever. It’s the app I I switched to it back in 20131 when Google killed it Reeder service. With the #1 feed reader dead, it seems like […]

Logo of the Jolly Roger Telephone Co.

Jolly Roger Telephone Co.

Oh man, I wish I had thought of this. Jolly Roger Telephone Co. is a service that allows you to forward telemarketers to their AI bots which attempt to keep them on the line for as long as possible. Brilliant. At $2 per month, I’m actually tempted to try this service out. Especially after listening […]

macOS High Sierra Promo

Upgrading To macOS High Sierra

It’s been awhile since I did a post regarding a macOS upgrade. In fact, it’s been GASP 4-years, so I thought it might be fun to take stock and do a deep dive on how I did the upgrade. So let’s get to it!

The Boot Disk

For starters, I downloaded the new OS and created a bootable install disk on a thumb drive. This way I didn’t have to perform multiple downloads for each machine and I could have a boot disk handy in my “jump bag” when I travel.

On the day that the new macOS was available, I downloaded it to my laptop and then followed the guide on 9to5Mac.com to create the disk on a new 8GB thumb drive I bought from Amazon. The 9to5 guide was great for people who aren’t that comfortable with the Terminal due to the fact that they had a drag-and-drop style that saved a ton of typing.

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One Month Facebook Free

It’s now been over a month since I deleted my Facebook account and I thought I’d take a moment to share a few thoughts and experiences that I’ve had over the past 30+ days and take a moment to reflect.

I Don’t Miss It

I had a routine where I would go to Facebook at least once-a-day just to catch up what my friends and family were up to. After deleting my account, I thought that I might miss that part of my routine but surprisingly have not. If anything, I’ve reached out via text messages or other formats to keep in touch and I think I like it better. It’s more direct and more focused. I’ve even gotten on the phone a few times. 😯

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